by Emma Lea
The ring.
I froze. The water continued to pound on my skin as I tried to recall just what I had done with the ring. I’d need to return it because there was no way I wanted to keep it as a reminder of my spectacular failings. It was a custom design, and I knew I wouldn’t get all the money back, but something was better than nothing. I just had to find it.
Had I left it at the restaurant?
I vaguely remembered leaving the restaurant in an Uber and I was pretty sure I shoved the ring in my pocket after I tossed the cash for the bill on the table. I’d considered leaving the ring as payment, but I was too responsible for that, even in my drunken state.
So, I got into an Uber and I went…to Drinks. I sighed with relief. I went to Drinks to tell Frankie and to commiserate with her and…
And…
Oh. My. God.
Did I…?
No, I couldn’t have…could I?
I shook my head and turned off the shower. There was no way I would have proposed to Frankie. No way…except…
It all came back in a rush and my knees buckled. I’d asked Frankie to be my fake fiancée.
My heart pounded erratically, and I gasped for breath as the full weight of what I’d done crashed down on me.
I had to fix it. I didn’t know how I would do that, but I just knew I had to. She wouldn’t have taken me seriously, right? She would have understood I was too drunk to know what I was doing, right?
Somehow I didn’t think so. Somehow I knew that Frankie had accepted and knew exactly what she was doing when she did it.
I groaned. What the heck had I done?
I dragged my feet as I made my way downstairs. I would have to break this news to my parents and, quite frankly, I didn’t know how they would take it. I was supposed to propose to Clarissa last night. I did propose to Clarissa, so how would I explain why I was now engaged to Frankie?
I braced myself for the disappointed glares of my mother and father as I stepped into the dining room where I knew they would be eating breakfast. My father would be sitting at the head of the table reading the newspaper and my mother would be sitting on his right scrolling through social media. This was the typical morning routine, and I tried to skip it as often as I could, but not today. Today I had to face the music.
I cleared my throat as I stepped into the room and before I could even understand what was happening, my mother was out of her chair and smothering me in an effusive hug.
“I can’t believe you finally did it,” she gushed as she squeezed me tighter.
“Um…what?” I asked, enduring her affection and trying very hard not to flinch from the contact. My mother did not hug me…ever. I was fine with that and would be fine if she never did it again.
“I can’t say it wasn’t a surprise,” my father said with a rattle of the Financial Times. “I didn’t think you had it in you, boy.”
My mother finally let me go and then dragged me over to the table and forced me to sit next to her.
“Tell me everything,” she said, clutching my hand.
“Um…” I began.
“I mean, I saw the video on TikTok,” she went on, “But I want to know the actual story.”
“TikTok?” I asked, frowning. “What is…TikTok?”
“You haven’t seen it?” she asked, looking at me with surprise.
“Seen what, exactly?” I asked. I didn’t know what she was saying, but I was getting a terrible feeling about it.
“Here, watch,” she said, shoving her phone in front of my face.
My gut clenched and spasmed and my skin broke out in a cold sweat as I watched myself get down on one knee and propose to Frankie. There was no sound, but it wasn’t hard to tell what was going on, especially when I flashed the diamond ring.
I was having an out-of-body experience…or something. As I watched myself and Frankie on the screen of my mother’s smartphone, I was reliving the entire thing. The way Frankie felt in my arms when I picked her up and swung her around. The way her lips felt when I kissed her. I can’t say it was my finest hour. The kiss was…odd and yet…I wanted to do it again.
I cleared my throat and tried to corral my weird reaction. I needed to get through this breakfast with my parents and explain how I went from supposedly proposing to Clarissa to actually proposing to Frankie.
There was no way I could tell them the truth.
“So?” my mother said. “Details.”
I cleared my throat again. “Clarissa and I broke up,” I said, leaving out the bit where I proposed to her and then she dumped me.
“Well, obviously,” Mother said. “So did you finally realize you’ve been in love with Francesca all this time?”
“She isn’t my first choice for a wife,” Father said from behind his newspaper. “But she comes from an excellent family.”
My mind was racing and I couldn’t keep up with the conversation. I had one of those record-scratch moments when my mother asked me if I realized I was in love with Frankie. I did love Frankie, there was no question about that, but being in love with her? That was kind of ridiculous and I had to hold in a snort.
Falling in love with Frankie would be an exercise in frustration and a sure way to experience heartbreak. I might have had a crush on her for years, but I knew it could be no more than that. Frankie and I were just too different. It surprised me we even worked as friends. Turning our friendship into a romantic relationship would be a disaster and Frankie would end up hating me for all eternity.
“Shush, Demetrius,” Mother said. “Francesca is a little headstrong, but no more so than your own daughter. And her family might not be in our usual social circles, but they are well respected. Besides, Lucas needs someone with a bit of fire. Clarissa was lovely and all, but a little bland. Francesca is perfect.”
It appeared I didn’t need to do anything to convince my mother that Frankie and I were the real deal, even if we were just pretending. I also didn’t expect the unwavering support of my mother. I didn’t think she even liked Frankie.
“Um, so Frankie will go to Kalopsia with me,” I blurted out.
“Of course she will,” Mother said with a twinkle in her eye. “She will keep those filthy gold-diggers away from you.”
I rolled my eyes, but I also made sure my mother couldn’t see me do it. I doubted very much that there would be any gold-diggers trying to seduce me. I wasn’t the guy who attracted that sort of attention—thank God. I didn’t think that would change when I went to Kalopsia.
I stood and ran a hand down my shirt. “I need to get to the office.”
“Invite Francesca to dinner next week,” Mother said. “We need to start planning the wedding.”
I nodded and then fled. I swallowed thickly and clenched my fists to stop them from shaking. Why did I think this would be easy? How were Frankie and I going to pretend to be engaged? I was beginning to think I’d made a stupid mistake and untangling us from it would be harder than just standing up to my parents and telling them I didn’t need a fiancée to go to Kalopsia.
Chapter 5
Francesca
My phone beeped yet again with another notification and I sighed. My phone had been blowing up all morning, and I was about ready to throw it through a window. I hadn’t realized somebody was filming Lucas’ fake proposal, and I really didn’t think they would post it on TikTok of all things. It wouldn’t have been so bad if Lucas’ mother hadn’t then tagged me in it. I could have been blissfully unaware of the social media storm and wouldn’t be interrupted every five minutes when I was trying to study.
My phone beeped again, and I growled as I picked it up to look at the display.
Mom: Did you forget to tell me something?
She attached a link to the TikTok video in her text and I groaned again. That was not how I planned to tell her and Dad what happened. I was still waiting to hear from Lucas. If he was freaking out about this whole situation, then he was doing it quietly…or more likely, he’d stuck his head in the
sand and was ignoring it.
Me: Sorry, Mom. We need to talk.
Mom: Lunch? Dad and I can swing a break at the same time today.
Me: Okay, what time?
We made arrangements for lunch and I silenced my phone. I didn’t know why I hadn’t done it earlier, probably because I was hoping Lucas might try to make contact. His silence worried me. I knew he needed time to process, and depending on how drunk he actually was the night before, he might not have even realized what he’d done yet.
I was just getting back into the flow of studying when the doorbell interrupted me. I cursed under my breath and dragged myself off the bed to check the video display. All I could see on the screen was an enormous bunch of flowers.
“Hello?” I said, pushing the intercom button.
“Francesca Davenport?” the delivery guy asked from behind the flowers.
“Um, yep, that’s me,” I replied.
“I have a delivery for you.”
“I see that. I’ll be down in a sec.”
I skipped down the two flights of stairs to the foyer and opened the door. The flower arrangement was even bigger in person than it had been on the screen upstairs.
“Sign here,” the guy said, shoving a tablet at me.
I signed my name, and he deposited the massive bunch of flowers—complete with crystal vase—into my arms.
“Uh, thanks,” I said, fumbling with a tip before bumping the door closed with my hip.
Who the heck would send me flowers? My pulse picked up, and I felt a little giddy. Were they from Lucas? He’d never sent me anything before, not even a GIF message or a funny email, he barely even used emojis when he texted me. He’d given me gifts before, but he’d always done it in person.
I carried the enormous flower arrangement through to the kitchen and heaved it up onto the counter. They were beautiful. I couldn’t name all the flowers in the bouquet—not that that was anything alarming, I wasn’t exactly a flower person—but they were lovely all the same. And the colors! They were bright and happy and vibrant. Who knew flowers came in all these different colors? There was not a red rose or a pink carnation in sight.
I searched through the veritable shrub of flowers until I found a card. Not just a card. The envelope was thick card stock and there was a wax seal on the back. I cracked the seal and opened the envelope to pull out the hand-written note inside…okay, not hand-written exactly. It was printed—I’m guessing from an email—but the message had been handwritten in its original form.
Dear Francesca,
Congratulations on your recent engagement.
We look forward to meeting you.
King Christophe Kostopolous
I may have sworn.
I may have even blacked out for a moment.
These flowers were from a king…the king. Lucas’ king.
Holy moly.
This was real, even if it was fake. Lucas and I were actually going to pretend we were engaged, and we would do this by deceiving royalty.
My knees turned to jello, and I lowered myself to a chair as I tried really hard not to hyperventilate.
When I’d agreed to be Lucas’ fake fiancée, I hadn’t thought through the fact that we would have to lie to the king.
Could that be construed as treason?
I didn’t know how the whole monarchy thing worked. Did they still behead people? Or hang them? The closest I came to anything regarding royalty was watching Game of Thrones, and although logically I knew that Kalopsia was nothing like Westeros, the fear was still there. Queen Cersei was not someone I ever wanted to meet, let alone lie to. Neither was Daenerys, if I was honest. Oh, that girl was fierce, and I loved her, but that didn’t mean I wanted to meet her or her dragons.
What had we done? And was it too late to get out of it? I mean, the king already knew we were engaged, even if he didn’t know it was fake. I couldn’t exactly send the flowers back and say, ‘sorry, but it was all a mistake.’ And if I pulled out of the agreement with Lucas, his father wouldn’t let him go to Kalopsia and he would lose his chance to finally be out from under his parents’ thumb. And I would lose my topic for my dissertation.
I bent forward and put my head between my legs as I tried to calm my breathing. Maybe if we explained the situation to the king…
The doorbell interrupted my freak out. I groaned. I was in no frame of mind to talk to anyone and if it was another gift from the king, I might actually throw up.
I glanced at the screen on the kitchen wall and exhaled roughly. Lucas. Thank God it was Lucas. Maybe between the two of us we could work out how to get out of this mess.
Lucas
I smoothed my the front of my shirt and tried to ignore the sweat on my hands as I waited for Frankie to answer the door. I’d tried calling her, but she wasn’t answering and I was convinced she never wanted to speak to me again. I hadn’t realized my mother would share that stupid video to all her social media followers. I didn’t have social media, so it took Effie summoning me to her office for me to realize what was going on.
This entire thing had gotten so far out of hand, I didn’t know what to do. I just hoped Frankie had a plan. Frankie always had a plan.
The door opened and Frankie smiled hesitantly at me. That was new, and I didn’t like it. Frankie was never hesitant about anything.
“Hey,” she said.
“Hey,” I replied, pushing my glasses up my nose.
We stared at each other for a moment and then she swung the door wide.
“Come in,” she said.
I stepped across the threshold and past Frankie, close enough to pick up on her scent. She smelled like chocolate chip cookies. Had I ever noticed that before?
“Can I get you a drink?” she asked, leading me through the brownstone to the kitchen.
“Coffee would be great,” I replied, and she looked at me with surprise.
I wasn’t a big coffee drinker, it usually made my anxiety worse, but I needed it today if only to get over the whiskey headache that was still throbbing behind my eyes.
“Cream and sugar?”
“Please,” I replied.
I might be drinking coffee today, but that didn’t mean I liked the taste of it.
I slid onto a stool by the kitchen counter and watched as she made my coffee. She moved gracefully, almost like she was dancing. Had I noticed that before? And why was I noticing it now? In fact, why was I suddenly noticing a whole lot of things about her I’d never noticed before? Like that little sliver of skin that she bared when she reached up to pull a mug out of the overhead cupboards, or the way she smelled, or the way her hair looked like she’d just crawled out of bed…and not in a bad way.
I cleared my throat and tore my eyes away from her. The atmosphere between us was already weird, I didn’t need to make it any weirder. I scanned the room for something else to pin my attention on and noticed the massive arrangement of flowers.
“Is it your parents’ anniversary?” I asked.
“What? No, why?”
“The flowers.”
She turned and looked at the flowers and her cheeks flushed.
Fascinating.
I’d never seen Frankie blush before. Why would she be blushing about flowers?
Oh.
Oh, my God.
Did she have a boyfriend she hadn’t told me about? Was that why this was so weird between us?
But why would she agree to be my fake fiancée if she had a boyfriend?
Her dissertation.
Of course. She was doing this for her Ph.D.
“They’re…um…they’re from the king,” she mumbled.
“What?” I asked as she slid my coffee across the counter to me. “I thought I heard you say they’re from the king?”
Frankie rolled her eyes and huffed. “They are,” she said, grabbing a note and pushing it toward me. “See for yourself.”
I scanned the note, recognizing the handwriting even before I got to the signature at the end.
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br /> “The king has heard about this?” I asked with disbelief as I slowly raised my eyes to hers.
She nodded slowly. “It appears so.”
I sighed as I picked up my coffee and took a sip, grimacing just a bit. Frankie came around to my side of the counter and slipped onto the stool beside me.
“Tell me what’s going through your head,” she said, her hands cupping her mug of black coffee.
“I didn’t realize this would become such a big…thing,” I replied with a sigh. “I came here to apologize for that stupid video and to give you the opportunity to back out.”
She stared at me for so long I didn’t think she would answer me. My heartbeat ratcheted up and my gut clenched. I didn’t know what it was I wanted her to say. I didn’t know if I wanted her to call the entire thing off or not.
“Is that what you want?” she asked softly, her eyes dropping to her mug.
“Frankie,” I said, reaching out to take one of her hands in mine. They were smaller than mine, another thing I’d never noticed. Frankie was larger than life, always. “I want to go to Kalopsia but not if it means bringing all this drama into your life. I should have told my mother to stay out of it, and I’m sorry for that. I’m sorry this has disrupted your life so much. I will completely understand if you want to call it off.”
She huffed and rolled her eyes. “This is hardly a big drama,” she said with a slight smile. “Besides, you know I’m always up for a bit of excitement.”
“Being tagged in a viral video is hardly a ‘bit of excitement.’”
Frankie shrugged. “The constant notifications are annoying, but it’s really no biggie. I was more concerned about the fact that we will have to lie to the king.” She frowned and bit her lip, drawing my eyes to her mouth.
The kiss we shared really hadn’t been my finest moment. I’d like to do it again just to prove to her I knew how to kiss.